


Leave A Trace

by seraphoria



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-13
Updated: 2017-09-13
Packaged: 2018-12-27 17:41:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 992
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12086058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seraphoria/pseuds/seraphoria
Summary: for the prompt: “I don’t exactly hate you, but if you were on fire and I had water, I’d drink it.”





	Leave A Trace

**Author's Note:**

> hi i wrote this in like 3 hours at 3am and it's probably not good but here it is. 
> 
> set after catws in another timeline where bucky was caught by cap and nat and joined SHIELD.

“Don’t get me wrong, Barnes. I don’t exactly hate you, but if you were on fire and I had water, I’d drink it.”

Tony’s eyes bore into Bucky’s. Ever since he’d been rescued from HYDRA, Bucky rubbed Tony the wrong way. Maybe it was the hair. Or the eyeliner. Why does he wear eyeliner? 

“Well, I can’t say I’m fond of you either, considering you’ve done absolutely nothing to help me, ever.” Bucky gives a strained smile, handing him a dossier. “That doesn’t change the fact that we’ve been assigned this mission. Together. So stock up on water. I guess.” He pats Tony’s shoulder, hard, and saunters away.

“Don’t count on it, mariska doll.” Tony mutters, opening the dossier and looking it over. Apparently, they were assigned to a covert scouting mission at a HYDRA base. Just him and Barnes. What the hell was Fury thinking? He was half-tempted to call up Nat and see if she had gotten an assignment for something like actually blowing up a HYDRA containment facility or something. Their names were right next to each other in the list. Clerical error or something.

He sighs, tossing the dossier away and rubbing his eyes. It’s not like he didn’t appreciate a more quiet mission, considering his nerves were still shot from the Chitauri attack. And the attack on Pepper. And any previous attacks before those two. In any case, maybe some quiet surveillance missions were what he needed.

***

So much for stress-free mission. It was a few days later, at the HYDRA compound, somewhere in the mountains of Germany.

“Hey, uh, Barnes, next time, talk to me before you go barging into battle!” Tony yells into his suit’s comm. He flies up to survey the situation. Through the snow, he can see he’s fending off about 50 HYDRA soldiers as Bucky fought another 20. With more coming.

“You don’t understand. You don’t know what they did to me, what they made me do!” Bucky yells back through his own comm. 

“Listen, cupcake, I read your file, I have an idea.” Tony fires off two shots and hits four of the soldiers. He smiles at his own skill. “That doesn’t give you the right to completely change the point of a mission. Fury will have our asses.”

“I don’t care!” Bucky roars back. He fires off 5 shots and all hit their targets. He yells in rage as he kicks another soldier square in the chest, flinging the soldier into a tree. He’s on a rampage. He shoots seven more, and runs out of ammo. Further enraged, he throws them aside, and, using his fists, takes out another four. All are down within a couple of minutes. Tony can hear his deep, wrathful breaths through the comm. 

“Barnes, calm it down! You’re getting reckless and you’re-” Tony’s cut off by Bucky’s yells, different this time. He turns and sees Bucky against a tree, on his side, seemingly unconscious.

“You’re gonna get hit.” Tony finishes his statement, firing off more shots to take the rest of them down. After a few minutes, he finds himself flying over to Bucky and hovering, surveying the damage. “We need to get you to a therapist, teen wolf. Maybe the one Bruce has.” He lifts Bucky onto his shoulders and flies back to base, just past the mountains. Why is it always the mountains? 

***

After dropping Bucky off in the emergency bay, Tony retires to his own room. He pulls up Bucky’s file, reading about his history again. Born in ‘25, both parents dead by the time he’s 12, sister Rebecca whisked away from him, high school drop-out, grew up on a military camp. Bucky was kinda like him, Tony realized. Forced into lives they didn’t ask for, victims of circumstance. He feels a large pang of empathy for the guy. He leans forward, his elbows on his desk. He rests his head on his hands, quiet in contemplation.

“Tragic, right?” A voice rings in the air. “Poor orphan from Indiana.” Tony looks up and sees Bucky standing in the doorway. Shirtless and bandaged. “Reading my files, man? Really? I thought you said you’ve, uh, done that already.”

“Refresher course.” Tony lies. “Honestly, I was trying to remind myself of your sensitive situation with HYDRA.” Another lie. “It’s understandable you hold a grudge, in any case. I wouldn’t want a bunch of nerds like me shocking the... me out of... me. That could have had better phrasing.” He gives a sort of grimace-smile, attempting at humor.

Bucky gives a dry laugh. “Yeah, uh… it was a bit more than a shock but about the right idea, Tony.” Bucky looked down, clearly uncomfortable. 

Tony finds himself pitying Bucky, which wasn’t fair. Bucky didn’t need pity. He needed sympathy, empathy, someone to listen to him. 

Bucky looks back up at him, another strained smile on his face. “I just wanted to say, uh… Thanks for not leaving me up there.”

Tony feigns shock. “What kind of person do you think I am, Prince of Persia? Fury needed to know who truly screwed us over out there and I will not take the fall for you.” He smiles a genuine smile.

Bucky chuckles. Tony feels a sense of pride and accomplishment at seeing Bucky smile. 

“Oh, he can laugh! And smile! I’ll have to try that more often,” Tony revels in a less angsty Bucky.

“Okay, there’s no need to take all the credit,” Bucky lightly chides.

“Are you kidding? This is going on the Washington Post. ‘Local International Spy Smiles For The First Time Since He’s Stepped On S.H.I.E.L.D. Base: Tony Stark To Thank For It.’” Tony says, gesturing as if he sees it on a screen.

“You’re full of yourself, huh?” Bucky chuckles again.

“Yeah, and you should be, too. Now, back to the emergency bay.” Tony escorts him out his room, before either of them realizes what Tony said.


End file.
